The Brevard College men’s basketball team led by 12 at the half en route to its second straight win by defeating Catawba, 87-75, on Saturday afternoon during South Atlantic Conference (SAC) play in Goodman Gymnasium.
The Tornados (5-9 overall, 3-5 SAC) were led by Phill Wallace who had 22 points. Brayden Masten and Darius Moose each finished with 18 points. Masten also had 13 rebounds and four blocks. Trevon Shaw had 12 points while Miles Leathers had nine points and six boards.
KJ Arrington led all scorers with 29 points for the Indians (5-8 overall, 3-5 SAC) and also hauled in 13 boards. Jerrin Morrison had 14 points and six rebounds while Jameel Taylor had 12 points and five rebounds.
Brevard opened the game with four unanswered points before Catawba went on a 5-0 run. The game was tied 10-10 with just under five minutes gone in the first half. Brevard went on a 12-3 run to build a 31-22 lead with 6:18 left in the half.
Ben Sealey hit two free throws for Catawba before Masten tipped in a missed shot by Leathers to build a nine point lead for Brevard with 5:32 remaining.
Leathers built the Tornados largest lead of the half of 12 by hitting a three pointer with just over four minutes left in the half to force a Catawba timeout and put Brevard up 38-26. The Tornados went into the half up 44-32 and never trailed for the rest of the game.
Catawba opened the second half on an 11-6 run in the first 1:49 to come within nine before Brevard went up by 12 at the first media timeout of the second half to lead 54-41. Catawba crawled back to within six but the Tornados again went up 62-48 with just over 10 minutes left.
That was the closest the Indians came to closing the gap until the 3:09 mark when they were down 77-67 but the Tornados held on for the 87-75 victory.
Brevard shot 50.9 percent in the game on 28-of-58 shooting and were 10-fo-24 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc while holding Catawba to 35.3 percent from the field. The teams were nearly even in rebounds as the Tornados had a slight 41-40 edge. They also led in assists with 18 and had a 15-9 advantage on points off turnovers.
Brevard also had 18 second chance points even though Catawba had a 17-10 edge on the offensive glass.
The Tornados return home for their first home game of the 2015 portion of the schedule on Wednesday, January 14. The game is slated for an 8 p.m. start as the second contest of the double header.
Visit the official site of Brevard College Athletics for more information.